Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a carriage assembly for use in (applied for), for example, a printing apparatus that prints images, while moving a carriage on which a head is mounted.
Description of the Related Art
A serial scan type printing apparatus prints images on sheets, while reciprocally moving a carriage on which a print head is mounted. The carriage is guided along a guide member to be capable of reciprocating in the main scanning direction. In order to improve the quality of an image printed by the printing apparatus, it is important that the print head should be appropriately positioned with respect to the sheet. For example, in a case wherein sheets having a different thickness are employed to print images, the position of the print head opposite a print face of the sheet should be adjusted in accordance with the thickness of the sheet, and an appropriate distance should be set between the print head and the sheet that faces the print head. In the present invention, this distance will be called a “gap”.
In order to adjust the gap, an arrangement described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-268340 employs a carriage provided by assembling two structures. One of the two structures includes a bearing that can be reciprocally guided along a guide member arranged in the main body of a printing apparatus, while the other structure is provided to mount a print head on, and is attached to the previously mentioned structure through a position adjustment mechanism in a manner such that position adjustment can be performed. The position adjustment mechanism adjusts the position of the latter structure, with respect to the former structure, and sets a gap between the print head and a sheet.
According to the arrangement described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-268340, the print head is positioned, with respect to the guide member, by the structure guided by the guide member, the position adjustment mechanism, and the other structure. In the above described case wherein the print head is positioned, with respect to the guide member, by the two structures and the position adjustment mechanism, there is a possibility that the accuracy of positioning the print head will be degraded, and accordingly, the quality of a printed image will deteriorate.